Poker Face
by Akuma-No-Seija
Summary: When a penguin from Skipper's past finds herself in the zoo, it seems everyone's worlds come crumbling down. The whole zoo is lost in secrets and lies, betrayals and ignorance. And on the outskirts of the city, evil is ready to strike. Contains Skilene!:D
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** Hi, everyone! As a new author, I'm _not _the best, but I hope you somehow find this story at least a little enjoyable. This story is something I never meant to write, but it's here now. Believe it or not, it was actually a friend's idea. We were in gym one day in February, and as a fellow PoM fan, she started blurting out all this random stuff about how there should be a gal penguin. Then she turned to me... Ever since the school year had started, she had been teasing me that I was just a female version of Skipper; the way I talk, the way I act... And for a while I was called Skippy in reference to that. That eventually turned into me being called "Skippae". And Skippae eventually made her way into this story....

**WARNING:**This story contains Skilene, which I proudly happen to support. If you don't like Skilene, you shouldn't read this story. And please no burns on this pairing in the reviews. Thank you!

The Penguins of Madagascar belong to Dreamworks Animations, Viacom, Nickolodeon, Tom McGrath (eek, it's Skipper! :D), Eric Darnell, and a bunch o' other guys. That does not include me. I disown them 'cuz pple just won't give them to me! XD

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*PREFACE : THE HAND OF SORROW*

_"New York City? What?" _

The young major stood before General Gentoo, a bewildered look plastered upon her face. "Why?"

He signaled her to follow him, and she did so. He hopped onto a high rock, and watched over the snow covered zoo with dark, focused eyes. Then there he stood, for what seemed to be forever, lengthening the quietness and the tension to the point where you could almost call them immortal. _The silence, the tension, had to die; The major needed answers._

She frowned and prodded his shoulder.

"General, I don't understand..."

Gentoo slowly looked down at the short Isabelline female, and raised a brow.

"Major, do you remember, when you were a chick, who used to watch over you?"

The major contemplated this, a thoughtful flipper held up to her orange beak. "My parents?"

Gentoo shook his head "no" and swiveled it back around to stare out at the penguin habitat, at all the birds before him. The rockhoppers, the fairies, the yellow-eyes, royals, kings...

"Not just them, major. There was another chick, older...You remember him?"

The major turned to the others as her superior had, cocking her head in puzzlement and trying to recall this "other chick". Try as she might... her past was blurrier than she had thought.

"No... I'm afraid I don't, sir."

Gentoo nodded, tiredly leaning against a rock. The elderly penguin's arthritic bones were paining him...He caught himself and stood back up again, refusing under any circumstance to show a solitary sign of weakness. He looked back at the major.

"I thought you wouldn't. This-this "other chick", major... He was your best friend, like a brother to you. There's not one place he would go that you weren't there beside him. This "other chick"...he was your cousin."

"My cousin?"

"Yes. Hatched here at the Pittsburgh Zoo same year as you were, older by a few months."

The major listened, watched with her intense blue gaze... _Her cousin... _

"What happened to him?" she breathed.

"When he was almost three years old, he was lost to us..."

The general waddled over to a corner of the exibit and stopped at a tall, red brick wall. The major watched in shock as he dusted off what seemed to be some sort of cover-up... because what was behind that cover-up was charred brick. But... char only came from- No. That wasn't possible. Was it?

"A few years ago, the zoo caught on fire. You don't remember this because you were too young. The people don't know this because it happened in the middle of the night. Your mother, Molly, your Uncle Henry and your Aunt Sonya helped me put it out, helped me fight it. Helped me take on the flames from the sight of Hell itself that night...And Sonya and Henry... Sonya and Henry were your cousin's parents."

He paused.

"In the very midst of all the flames, all the smoke, your cousin was trapped against this wall. Sonya rushed to the location, saved your cousin...But there was a tree, big old birch here, caught on fire. It fell to the ground and seperated the two. Sonya- our dear Sonya- was burned to death. Couldn't escape even if she tried. We found her body, a shriveled up husk...where I'm standing right now."

"Henry was devastated, heart-broken- We all were. But none more so than him. And when he found that his son was missing, he went out searching. Didn't stop for months. Finally, he gave up, told himself that his son was dead. He was never the same after that. And he still regrets having never shown that chick any respect, due to his own conceit. He never seemed proud of him, never seemed to really love him, because he thought it was a sign of _weakness. _And a strong colonel like him _should not show weakness ."_

The major shifted her weight to the side uncomfortably. No wonder Henry was the way he was... Her gaze fell upon the male penguin, so many feet away. He stood under the shadow of an overhanging rock formation, glaring out at anyone who dared come across him. All he was was skin and bones and ruffled feathers. Old battlescars tattooed his aging body.

"...But what does any of this have to do with New York?" she asked the general.

He turned his head away and sighed, a long sigh, tired... and said in an almost unaudiable voice, "Your cousin is still alive, and that's where he is. He's ranked a captain, has his team of three men."

"..How do you...? But, shouldn't Henry-"

"Henry doesn't know a thing. Your cousin's just gotten himself into a spot of trouble here lately and that's how _I _know. He's made quite a few enemies..."

Gentoo breathed out deeply, a cloud of fog forming from his warm breath in the cold winter's air. Hesitation was hinted in his voice as he began to speak again.

"Major, listen... I used to be your cousin's mentor. I was also general when he was hatched here. I'm not sure how many mentors, how many superiors he's had by now, but that doesn't change a thing. By Penguin Code, it is every mentor's job to evaluate his apprentice and his team when that apprentice turns six years old. If that chick is hatched one place with one mentor, but is transferred to a different area, his hatchplace mentor will always be the one to evaluate him, no excuses. Only when that mentor is dead, ill, or injured, may a different mentor or penguin from the apprentice's hatchplace carry on the evaluation."

"Major, I'm half a year late. Because I'm too-"

He cut himself off. His pride stood in his way, and he struggled to let the next few words escape.

"I'm too old, too arthritic, too fragile... to go to New York City. Too far away, and even if I got there, it'd be too dangerous. A place like that is no place for an old man like me. And that's why I'm sending _you."_

"For an evaluation of your apprentice? Of my cousin? If you'll pardon my choice of word, General Gentoo, I find it... _petty, _that you are keeping the secret of his life from his own father. Henry has the right to know his son is alive, does he not?"

Gentoo's brown eyes widened, but whether it was in anger, or shock, or something inbetween, the major could not tell. The old bird merely looked down at his webbed feet with a shamed expression.

"Yes, yes he does. But it's better he _not _know until- until we are sure about... _certain_ _things... _just to be on the safe side."

"I... respect that, sir." the major lied. Gentoo knew that this bird was alive all along, and never told the father, who did nothing but wallow in depression for these past three and half years. _What a waste of life_, she thought. A legendary colonol put to total _waste. _It made her sick.

"What was this bird's name and what was his general appearance?" she asked trying to hide the disgust for the bird she once respected.

A glazed stare crossed the general's face, his brown eyes soulless, and if he hadn't spoken, the major would have thought him dead.

"Sonya and Henry never did decide on a name for him.... Used to get called "Runt" a lot by Henry, "Nino" by Sonya. You called him "Peanut Butter" for some reason. But I still remember him, the way he looked, _very clearly... _Spitting image of his mother... Ask Henry."

And with that, he waddled away, leaving the major alone in the cold, wintery breeze that engulfed all of Pittsburgh. As his silhouette dwindled behind the rocks, snowflakes began to fall from the sky, dancing gracefully, ever so gracefully, until one by one, they fell quietly to the ground.

There was a silence...

"...Henry... Let's go see Henry..."

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The child without a name grew up to be the hand

To watch you, to shield you, or kill on demand

The choice he'd made he could not comprehend

His blood a grim secret they had to commend

He's torn between his honor and the true love of his life

He prayed for both but was denied

So many dreams were broken and so much was sacrificed

Was it worth the ones we loved and had to leave behind?

So many years have passed, Who are the noble and the wise?

Will all our sins be justified?

-"Hand of Sorrow" by Within Temptation

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A/N: And the best band in the world helps round off this prologue! Go WT! Ahem, anyway, Chap. 1 should be up by Monday. Chap. 2 should be up in... say, three to five days.

Skipper: Thirty-five days?! o.O

Me: NO. 3 _to_ 5 days! :P

_-Penguin out! R&R, plz!_

_P.S. As SeleneMarie pointed out in the reviews, Skipper says "Numbre" uno at the end. The proper way to say that in Spanish is "Numero". His mistake was purposely written... Skippae will eventually bite his ears off... Wait, penguins don't have ears... :?_


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:**Argh! So much thought went into this one chapter and unfortunately, it doesn't really show. :( Anywho, here goes the major's intro to NYC and the penguins! Let's see how she handles it all. *devilish smile*

This chapter was named for my friend (the one who co-created the story) because this is what she originally wanted to name it. But that just "didn't fly" as Skipper would say, so we came up w/ this. Hope you enjoy this next chapter! XD

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*****CHAPTER ONE : THE NEWCOMER***

Alice grumbled to herself as she made her way to the penguin habitat, wooden crate held in her arms.

"Ugh...As if we absolutely _need_ another penguin. Can't we ever just get something cute?"

She set the crate down on the habitat's floe when she reached it, and squatted beside it to open the lock. All the while, she was still complaining.

"Like a koala? A koala would be _so_ nice. But no, we had to get another _freak_ of a penguin."

As soon as the cranky zookeeper pried the box open, a penguin slid out rather clumsily, as penguins naturally do. It looked up at her with curious sapphire eyes from where it lie on its back on the ground, and let out a squawk.

_"What?" _Alice inquired of it, though she knew it was an animal and therefore wouldn't answer her.

The penguin jumped to its feet and cocked its head at her. Though she never really payed any attention to these things, Alice could see that this was not a normal bird; it was an Isabelline, meaning its plumage was brown. And then there was this huge pink bow with black polka-dots on the left side of its head, and... _spiked anklets on its feet? _

"You're a strange one, aren't you, girly?"

Why anyone would dress up a penguin, Alice couldn't understand. Now, she could just take the accessories off, but being the person she was, and that person being lazy, thinking to herself that she had better things to be doing that didn't include spending even just a second with a very odd penguin, she was gone before anyone could blink twice.

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Meanwhile, inside the HQ, Rico was on lookout duty. He watched every nook and cranny of the Central Park Zoo through the para-scope. Everything was business as usual. Nothing unexpected ever happened anymore...

Phil and Mason sat on their tree, playing a game of chess. Julien, Maurice, and Mort danced to the music blaring from their boom-box. Ted lay sprawled out on his rock, enjoying the snow. Burt happily crunched on a few peanuts... Rico finally made a home run back to the floe to find... another penguin? _What?_

He let out a grunt to signal the others.

_"Look!" _

Skipper was the first to the para-scope, and looked out through the lens. What he found on the outside wasn't anything he had expected. He jumped back at the discovery and barked his lieutenant,

"Kowalski: Analysis!"

The intellectual penguin nodded, and quickly scampered his way to the scope. He tightly shut one eye, and with the other, looked out the lens. There on the floe stood a young bird with a very strange outward appearance.

"It's another penguin, sir. Um, female, I believe. Isabelline."

_"Isabelline, _Kowalski? Uh, sprechen sie English?"

"She... has brown plumage instead of black. Young, perhaps six years old. Rather attractive, really..."

Skipper moved Kowalski aside and took another look at the female. After a quick peek, he stood back and held a flipper up to his beak.

"Hmm... I concur."

It was then that the youngest member of the team, Private, spoke up.

"Should we investigate, sir?" he piped in his soft British accent, almost bouncing in excitement; He loved to meet new people. Skipper nodded, and the team followed him up onto the floe.

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"Ugh... "Ask Henry," he said." the major mumbled to herself irritably, tinkering with the big pink bow on the side of her head. She would have thrown it to the ground and stomped on it by now had it not been helpful to her "evaluation", as Gentoo had called it.

_Evaluation my tail feathers! When you're incognito as some little preppy chick, that's not called an evaluation! _

"Yeah, I asked Henry, Gentoo, and what does he do? He gives me some shallow sob-story and yells at me to _go away! _Oh yeah, 'cause that's such a big suprise! Next thing I know I'm sent out here with no other intention than to spy on my "cousin". Built-in camera in a bow? Who ever heard of that! Oh, no, they'll _never_ suspect me with this big piece of _crap _on my head and with me saying, "Take me to your leader!"! Whooooo, I'm an alien spy, beware!"

"You there!" came a voice. The major spun around in suprise to find four male penguins staring at her. She stared back at them.

_Let's see: One leader, team of three men... I believe these are my guys, _she guessed.

"Me?"

"Yeah, you with the face!" the second shortest replied. _He_ seemed to be their leader. The major soaked in his appearance: he had a flat head, broad chest... very deep sapphire eyes like her own. He was short, handsome, seemed old enough to at _least_ pass for a captain, and maybe, just maybe, he could be..._ Is this...?_

"State your business, punk." he spat at her when he found her staring. The major winced.

_Okay, someone's not had his cup of coffee today..._

"Look, buddy," she sighed, folding her flippers to her chest. She was a rank above him; He had no right to speak to her like that. So he didn't _know, _so what? Either which way, _no one _told her what to do or how to do it. If someone told her to jump, she'd say, "Yeah. Go_ jump _off the tallest sky-scraper or I'll hang you there by your own nostrils."

"I don't have time for this childish game of yours. What do you want from me? Spit it out, guy."

The penguin stared at her blankly for a second, almost as if he was shocked, then shook his head quickly and retorted, "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

_Hoover Dam. I forgot to come up with a name...! _the major scolded herself inwardly. She decided to think one up as she answered the other half of the question.

"I'm from the Dallas Zoo, in Texas. I'll only be here until my habitat is fixed up. The elephants escaped and trampled _everything. _Not a pretty picture, let me tell ya. Everybody's always escaping, and ya know, usually it's the gorillas or tigers. But no, _this time _it had to be elephants that had been spooked by a tiny little mouse. _Cowards..."_

The four males glanced at each other, then back at her. They didn't know whether they should trust her or not. One of the four, however, had already made up his mind.

The shortest in the group pushed his way through to her and chirped,

"I'm the private!"

He then turned back to the others and pointed each one out, starting with the tallest.

"That's Kowalski, our lieutenant and strategist. He's also an _amazing _scientist, which is why we sometimes have no idea what on earth he's talking about."

Then he pointed to the one with a mohawk and a scar on the left side of his cheek, who waved at her in a friendly manner.

"And that's Rico, our staff sergeant and explosives and weapons expert. He doesn't speak much, but he's tons of fun."

He then pointed to the leader.

"And the cranky one here is our skipper. He's just a little too serious sometimes and he has this _gigantic _mishapen-"

Skipper shot a flipper over Private's beak to quiet him, then slapped him upside the head.

"Private, you just gave out confidential information! Not to mention you almost spilled the beans about- Ugh, that's not important! That's maintenance duty for a week."

"Aw, but Skipper, I just wanna make her feel comfortable..." Private pouted. His sky blue eyes looked up guiltily at his leader.

The major gazed sympathetically at the little penguin. _Sheesh, he doesn't have to be so hard on the poor lil' guy._

Skipper took a step closer to her, flippers on his hips. "Yes. As Private so _loudly_ stated, I'm Skipper. And you are...?"

The moment she had been dreading: her name. Her eyes shifted around nervously as she tried to think._ Name. Gotta think up a name!_

"Um... I'm, I'm... uh..."

_"Well?"_

"I'm...erm..."

"Look, do you have a name or not?" Skipper groaned, rolling his eyes. This female was wasting his valuable time, and he wasn't about to put up with this "tomfoolery", as he called it.

The major gulped. _Out of all the things I didn't think through! Out of all the things!_

_"S-Skippae!" _she subconsciously blurted. "I'm Skippae!"

_Wait, what?!_ Her flippers shot out over her beak when she realized what she had answered. _Oh, God, like he's gonna believe that! What am I thinking?!_

_"Skippae?" _Skipper echoed skeptically. The unnerved major nodded quickly, chewing on her tongue.

For a moment, she thought he'd begin to interrogate her. The "Where did you pull that one out of, spy?"'s, and the "Who sent you here?"'s and the "How much do you know?"'s... The major was on the virge of a nervous breakdown!

But the questions never came.

"Alright, Skippae... You're a penguin, so I guess... we can... trust..." Skipper suddenly trailed off and found himself looking her up and down. _Why have I...?_

"Have I met you before?"

"Skippae" shook her head "no".

"Erm... Never met you before in my life, dude. Nope. Never. Not at all... Nope."

She then rocked back and forth on her heels innocently, a soft smile creeping over her beak. She cursed her family at that moment; they were terrible liars. And appearantly, being bad at lying was hereditary.

Kowalski leaned over to whisper in Skipper's ear, "I think she'd get along well with Marlene, eh?"

Skipper nodded with a chuckle. "No doubt about that, 'Walski. Both cute, both naive."

"Well, Miss Skippae, I suppose that if you're going to be staying with us, you'll be needing someplace to call home. At least, for a while, anyways. You know the penguin credo, don't you?"

"Um... Never deep bathe in hot oil and Bisquick?"

Skipper looked appalled. Why was it that whenever he asked that question, people would always come up with that answer first? It wasn't even _close_ to being the credo!

_Lil' polka-dotted pink-bowed punk. She has no idea!_

"No! For the love of... It's "Never swim alone"! Alone! How many times do I have to explain this?"

He twirled around on one foot and began to march over to the fishbowl entrance. A glance back, he ordered to his team and the newcomer,

"Follow me."

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"Wow, your own little headquarters. Impressive, really." Skippae commented as she stared in awe at the penguins' home.

There were weapons and playing cards lying about everywhere, there was a lab (which she guessed must be Kowalski's), four bunks carved into a wall, a bathroom, a comfy-looking red recliner... and there was a guitar.

_Hmmm... I wonder which of these guys plays? Or maybe they just have it, just to have it, I guess..._

"So, by the weapons and rankings, I'm guessing... you're an elite strike force?" she directed at Skipper.

He smiled, which she took as a yes, and laughed,

"We've been all around the world, and out of all the animals we've met, you're one of the only ones to have gotten that exactly right. Girly, you've got some brains."

"Kowalski, I think you've got yourself some competition here."

Kowalski looked up from working on a chemical mixture at his lab table, a clearly confused expression behind his goggles.

"Huh?"

_Poof!_The mixture sounded as it exploded. Soot caked itself all on the poor scientist, and he let out a groan. This must have been the umpteenth time today that had happened. And it was only ten. _Pathetic._

Skippae snickered, a smug smirk plastering her face.

"You guys are a _bit_ of a mess, aren't you?"

"You have no idea." Kowalski chuckled, removing his goggles and setting them down on the table. He waddled away towards the TV and shuffled through the channels until he found, of course, the Science Channel. He stretched back against a makeshift couch and slumped down into it in an oddly relaxed manner.

Skippae couldn't help but feel somewhat confused.

_Strange, I thought these guys would be a little more paranoid of me if their leader was trained by Gentoo... _She shook her head in amusement, and to shake off the thought, her flippers behind her back. _Well, I've been wrong before. _

"Skippae!" Private's voice called from the storage room. He and Rico came out with an old, beige dog bed, and set it down before her.

"We found you somewhere to sleep. We know it's not quite as comfortable as what our bunks are, but it's the best we could do for now... If you need a blanket or a pillow, don't be afraid to ask us."

Skippae simply beamed at the two approvingly and took the bed in her flippers. "Thanks you guys. I really do appreciate it."

"PRETTY!!!" Rico squawked at her when she smiled. As she always did, she cocked her head. No one had ever called her pretty before... _Maybe it's because of this ridiculous bow?_

"Um... Thanks, Rico. That's, uh... very kind of you."

She took the bed to a corner and set it down, then turned to Skipper. Though she hated hiding that she outranked him, she had to make him think she had nothing to do with the military, and that she had nothing to do with him. As far as he was concerned, she wasn't a major and she wasn't his cousin. She was from the Dallas Zoo and not the Pittsburgh. She was just penguin who was here because her habitat was destroyed by a couple of high-strung elephants, she was _not_ a spy. She didn't know anything that he didn't know.

"All right, you're Captain Obvious-ly-the-boss-here. So what are your orders now?"

Skipper smiled at her somewhat deviously. Little did he know how ironic every word he was about to say was.

"Miss Skippae, what we do next is give you a bit of... an _evaluation. _See if we can _really_ trust you. _Test numbre uno..."_

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A/N: Please don't ask about the whole "PRETTY" thing between Rico and Skippae. THAT was Kathy's idea. Psychotic little ninja weasel; pairing me up with someone who already has a girlfriend goshdangit.... :P


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